The Hunt
by Elle Lee
Summary: Diamond is tortured by Lazuli, and Lapis is tortured by his own thoughts. With a glaring social revolution and horrifying resentment between them, can they find happiness together, or only tragedy that has been destined from the beginning?


:Bawls: After reading all five volumes of the manwa, I can't think of a series that I have adored more. But it was still so sad! Lapis dies finally telling Diamond he loves him (after far too much denial to be healthy) and then a heartbroken diamond lets himself die clutching the body of the one he loves :bawls more: Out of maybe eleven or twelve of the characters I liked, maybe only two of them lived! (:Screams a la Silica: PYROPE! X-X) Sooooo…. I'll just pretend the ending never happened, and live in my lovely little dream world (known as Fanfiction) where all my little lovelies are still alive . ; Which of course would mean the damn near beginning of the story. And Lapis tends to be a little…tender then (:cough:Jailbait:cough:) So that means this ficcy is staying PG-13… At least on ; This ficcie starts out in Soleil, the night Lapis goes to the shrine to get Tourmaline.

I had to do some last minute editing since doesn't seem to like the way I format stories :twitch: so there are ruler lines between story breaks.

Lapis: Just get on with it, already!

Elle -.-; Shut it, or this is staying strictly DaimondXLazuli.

Lapis: o-o;;

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_**The Hunt**_  
By: Elle

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_Lazuli…Finally I've found you… My beautiful jewel. Words cannot properly describe you. Your rich, bronzed skin, your gleaming, onyx-colored hair. Those deep dark eyes….like pools that I could fall into forever… _

"_**We're not your playthings! We're human beings! You can't toy with our lives!"**_

_No… that's not my beloved. That's not…—But those eyes! Why does such a filthy cur have her eyes? Why does my heart throb? Why does he continue to haunt me!_

"_**Here's your chance to open you eyes—sorry, eye—to the suffering of my people! You know it's true—take a look inside yourself."**_

_Suffering… I know all about suffering, wretch. I've vowed never to suffer again. … And yet… the one I love most can stir it inside me. Why do you keep eluding me, Lazuli? Don't you suffer as well? Do you feel the agony of loneliness inside of you, ripping your very soul apart? Do you even think of me? My beautiful jewel is it so wrong to want to keep you beside me?_

"_**We're not your playthings!" **_

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Diamond sat up with a jolt, his eye straining open wide, glazed over with the last remnants of sleep. His breath was coming in rapid pants, and some distant part of his mind could feel a bead of sweat running down the back of his neck.

Again the dreams. Even in sleep he could not escape the memory of that wretched whelp. Nor could he manage to catch his precious Lazuli. Why? Why did even his dreams conspire against him? Were his crimes so great that the Creator would condemn him to hell even before the last breath escaped his lips?

**_"We're not your playthings!"_**

He shuddered as that cursed spar's voice filtered through his mind like an echo. What was it about that dirty child's words that clung to him like a shroud? What made him so special?

_Those eyes…._

His teeth ground against one another as an image of his Lazuli flashed before his eyes, only to be instantly replaced by that yelping cur. His hand pressed unconsciously to his breastbone where his heart throbbed and jumped at the images in his mind. Why did that cur have his beloved's eyes? What was the connection?

Surely there had to be one. Even if he had been distracted by his bronzed fairy, he was too smart to completely forget that he had locked that mongrel in his dungeon with a guard watching at all times, only to find his jewel there later. And he had never before seen a spar with such dark skin and hair. With such bewitching eyes… And now there were suddenly two?

That wretch had some connection to his beloved that he couldn't ignore. A sibling perhaps? It made a convoluted sort of sense. And he supposed that would explain for the cur's sudden attack on him back in Neige.

His hand raised to the demi-mask that covered his scarred eye. Just the thought made his blood boil in his veins. That wretched child had dared to mar his flawless beauty. The thought of his Lazuli seeing him this way pained him. He would never forgive that cur for what he had done. And when he finally found him, he would paint the earth with his blood.

With a growl, he tore the sheets from his bare, pale form. Getting up from the bed he grabbed a jewel encrusted goblet from beside his bed. He filled it with brandy from a crystal decanter and moved out onto the balcony. The moonlight shone down on his skin like a halo, silhouetting his form in the darkness. Everything was still in the quiet of the night, and the peacefulness was more unsettling to him than the cries of war and death.

When would this madness end? When would his Lazuli finally come back to his arms…? And when would he taste the blood of that wretched boy who dared to share her eyes? Would he continue to be haunted for the rest of his life? Would the price of conquering the world be to always have his jewel out of reach? If that were the case, then price would certainly be too high to bear.

Like a magnet, a movement from down below caught his eye. Near the edge of the wood a form took shape. Hidden by the cloak of night. He strained his vision, trying to make it out. As if by the hand of god himself, the moonlight shifted, sweeping over the form.

His heart stuttered at the sight of the dark skin, and darker hair. But it wasn't the long, flowing mane of his beloved. It was the short, uneven mop of that cur that haunted him. The glass in his hand shattered, cutting his palm and spilling the stinging alcohol over it. The glass shards hit the ground with a musical tinkle, but it all went unnoticed as he stared at the form of one of the ones who haunted him.

Like a deer scenting danger, the boy's head whirled around, and their eyes met. His heart didn't so much as twitch in his chest during that moment of recognition. The distance between them seemed like mere feet. Just barely more than an arms length, and he could see the spar's expression clearly. One of shock, disbelief, and even a little wonder. In that moment, he was certain his own mirrored it.

Then there was nothing but a desperate fear in those bottomless orbs, and the figure took off into the woods.

**_"NO!"_**

The cry was torn from his throat, and before his brain even gave his body the suggestion to move, he was in his room, grabbing a cloak from his wardrobe, wrapping it around his body. With no concern for modesty, or even necessity, he ran back to the balcony and leapt. He hit the ground painfully, the vibrations of impact running all the way up to his thighs.

Pain was easy to ignore in the moment though, when the chase was everything, and he took off across the grass towards the woods, never even noticing the rocks that bruised his bare feet, or the blade of grass that sliced them.

_'I will find you, cur. And then there will be no where left for you to hide.'_

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**_To be continued_**

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Well, how was it? Never fear, this is only the beginning! Next chapter will be Lapis' turn at glaring introspection. Just WHAT is he doing outside the Habit's castle in the middle of the night? Find out in the next chapter! Until then, Ja matte!

And don't forget to review, ...Or else O-o


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